These animals are commonly known under the name of scaly lizards; we
reject this denomination; 1st, because it is a compound; 2dly, because
it is ambiguous, and applied to both species; 3dly, because it is
wrongly imagined; these animals being not only of another species,
but even of a different class, than the lizards, which are oviparous
reptiles, while the pangolin, and the phatagen, as they are called in
their native countries of the east, are viviparous quadrupeds.
All lizards are covered with a sleek speckled skin, in representation
of scales, but these animals have no scales on their throat, breast,
or belly, the phatagen, or long-tailed manis, (_fig. 126._) like
other quadrupeds, has hair on all these under parts of the body; the
pangolin, or short-tailed manis (_fig. 125._) has nothing but a smooth
skin without hair. The scales with which all the other parts of the
bodies of these two animals are covered do not stick to the skin,
they are only strongly fixed at the lower parts, being moveable, like
the quills of a porcupine, at the will of the animal; they raise these
scales when exasperated, and when particularly so, they roll themselves
up like a ball, resembling the hedge-hog: these scales are so big,
so hard, and so sharp, that they repel all animals of prey; it is an
offensive armour which wounds while it resists. The most cruel and
voracious animals, such as the tiger and the panther, make but useless
efforts to devour these animals, they tread upon, and roll them about,
but when they attempt to seize them, they receive severe wounds; they
can neither destroy them by violence, nor bruize, or smother them with
their weight. The fox is averse to attacking the hedge-hog when rolled
up, but he forces him to stretch himself by treading on, and squeezing
him with all his weight, and as soon as his head appears, he seizes the
snout, and thus secures him as a prey. But of all quadrupeds, without
even excepting the porcupine, the armour of the manis is the strongest
and most offensive, and which animals, by contracting their bodies and
presenting their weapons, brave the fury of all their enemies. When
they contract themselves, they do not take, like the hedge-hog, a
globose figure, but form an oblong, their thick and long tail remaining
outwardly and encircling their bodies; this exterior part, by which it
would seem these animals could be seized, carries its own defence; it
is covered with scales equally hard and sharp as those with which the
body is cloathed, and as it is convex upwards and flat below, nearly in
the form of half a pyramid, the sides are covered with square scales
folding in a right angle, as thick and as cutting as the others, so
that the tail seems to be still more strongly armed than the body, the
under parts of which are unprovided with scales.
The short-tailed manis is larger than the long-tailed kind; his fore
feet are covered with scales, but the feet of the latter, and part of
his fore legs are clothed with hair only. The former has also larger
scales, thicker, more convex, uniformly cutting, and not so close as
those of the latter, which are armed with three sharp points; he is
also hairy upon the belly; the other has no hair on that part of his
body, but between the scales which cover his back, some thick and long
hair issues like the bristles of a hog, which are not on the back
of the long-tailed species. These are all the essential differences
which we have observed in the skins of both these animals, and which
distinguish them from all other quadrupeds so much, that they have been
looked upon as a species of monsters. From these general and constant
differences, we dare affirm them to be two animals of distinct species.
We have discovered their analogies and differences, not only by the
inspection of three of them, which we have seen, but also by comparing
all which has been observed by travellers and naturalists.
The short-tailed manis is from six to eight feet in length, his tail
included, when he comes to his full growth; the tail is nearly as
long as the body, though it appears shorter when the animal is young;
the scales are not then so large nor so thick, and of a pale colour;
the colour becomes deeper in the adult, and the scales acquire such
a hardness, as to resist a musket ball. Both these animals have some
affinity with the great and middle ant-eater, for like them they feed
on ants, have very long tongues, narrow mouths, without apparent teeth;
their bodies and tails are also very long, and the claws of their
feet very near of the same length and the same form, but they have
five toes on each foot, while the great and middle ant-eaters have
but four to their fore feet; these are covered with hair, the others
are armed with scales; and besides they are not natives of the same
continent. The ant-eaters are found in America, and both the species
of the manis belong to the East Indies and Africa, where the negroes
call them _quogelo_; they eat their flesh, which they reckon a delicate
wholesome food, and use their scales for different purposes. They have
nothing forbidding but their figure; they are gentle and innocent,
feeding upon insects only; they never run fast, and cannot escape the
pursuit of men, except by hiding themselves in hollow rocks, or in
holes, which they dig themselves, and in which they breed. They are two
extraordinary species, not numerous, and seemingly useless: their odd
form seems to exist as an intermediate class betwixt the quadrupeds and
reptiles.